whole way, and by the time he was finished he smelled like death. At that moment, crouched on his hamstrings, his face streaked with sweat and dirt, he doubted whether he'd ever be able to scrub off the stench. If he knew a prayer, he would have said it then, but he knew only obscenities, which he uttered with the fervor of the righteous. But he wasn't righteous; he was damned.
For a businessman there was a decision to be made. Arkadin was no businessman, though, so from that day forward his fate was sealed. He returned to Nizhny Tagil with his two Stechkin handguns fully loaded and extra rounds of ammunition in his breast pockets. Entering the brothel, he shot the two ghouls dead as they stood at guard. Neither had a chance to draw his weapon.
Stas Kuzin appeared in the doorway, gripping a Korovin TK pistol. "Leonid, what the fuck?"
Arkadin shot him once in each knee. Kuzin went down, screaming. As he tried to raise the Korovin, Arkadin trod heavily on his wrist. Kuzin grunted heavily. When he wouldn't let go of the pistol, Arkadin kicked him in the knee. The resulting bellow brought the last of the girls from their respective rooms.
"Get out of here." Arkadin addressed the girls, though his gaze was fixed on Kuzin's monstrous face. "Take whatever money you can find and go back to your families. Tell them about the lime pit north of town."
He heard them scrambling, babbling to one another, then it was quiet.
"Fucking sonovabitch," Kuzin said, staring up at Arkadin.
Arkadin laughed and shot him in the right shoulder. Then, jamming the Stechkins in their holsters, he dragged Kuzin across the floor. He had to push one of the dead ghouls out of the way, but at last he made it down the stairs and out the front door with the moaning Kuzin in tow. In the street one of Kuzin's vans screeched to a halt. Arkadin drew his guns, emptied them into the interior. The car rocked on its shocks, glass shattered, its horn blared as the dead driver fell over onto it. No one got out.
Arkadin dragged Kuzin to his car and dumped him in the backseat. Then he drove out of town to the forest, turning off at the rutted dirt track. At the end of it, he stopped, hauled Kuzin to the edge of the pit.
"Fuck you, Arkadin!" Kuzin shouted. "Fuck-"
Arkadin shot him point-blank in the left shoulder, shattering it and sending Kuzin down into the quicklime pit. He peered over. There was the monster, lying on the corpses.
Kuzin's mouth drooled blood. "Kill me!" he shouted. "D'you think I'm afraid of death? Go on, do it now!"
"It's not for me to kill you, Stas."
"Kill me, I said. For fuck's sake, finish it now!"
Arkadin gestured at the corpses. "You'll die in your victims's arms, hearing their curses echoing in your ears."
"What about all your victims?" Kuzin shouted when Arkadin disappeared from view. "You'll die choking on your own blood!"
Arkadin paid him no mind. He was already behind the wheel of his car, backing out of the forest. It had begun to rain, gunmetal-colored drops that fell like bullets out of a colorless sky. A slow booming coming from the smelters starting up sounded like the thunder of cannons signaling the beginning of a war that would surely destroy him unless he found a way out of Nizhny Tagil that wasn't in a body bag.
Chapter Forty
WHERE ARE YOU, Jason?" Moira said. "I've been trying to reach you."
"I'm in Munich," he said.
"How wonderful! Thank God you're close by. I need to see you." She seemed slightly out of breath. "Tell me where you are and I'll meet you there."
Bourne switched his cell phone from one ear to the other, the better to check his immediate surroundings. "I'm on my way to the Englischer Garten."
"What are you doing in Schwabing?"
"It's a long story; I'll tell you about it when I see you." Bourne checked his watch. "But I'm due to meet up with Soraya at the Chinese pagoda in ten minutes. She says she has new intel on the Black Legion attack."
"That's odd," Moira said. "So do I."
Bourne crossed the street, hurrying, but still alert for tags.
"I'll meet you," Moira said. "I'm in a car; I can be there in fifteen minutes."
"Not a good idea." He didn't want her involved in a professional rendezvous. "I'll call you as soon as I'm through and we can-" All of a sudden, he realized he